So, okay, maybe you can’t really win a gazillion dollars with this bet, but it might be interesting to try with your friends, family and coworkers all the same.

Among other things, it demonstrates how language and folk beliefs develop and intermingle, and also introduces us to a reasonably common culprit in language-related folk beliefs: the backronym.

Coffee and other disasters

I was having a coffee with some coworkers a few weeks ago and for some reason we were talking about shipping disasters [1]. The wreck of the HMAS Sydney had only just been discovered, after resting hidden off the coast of West Australia for more than 60 years. This was big news here in Australia — the sinking of the Sydney has been one of the most lasting and contentious mysteries to have survived World War II, unlike the 600 unfortunate sailors who lost their lives when she went down with all hands in November of 1941.

Then, out of the wide blue yonder, someone mentioned the fact that “SOS” stands for “Save Our Souls”. There was general agreement around the table that this is the case [2].

But I don’t buy it.

This is, like, seriously aggravating…

There’s a thing that happens in my head when certain things seem ‘too neat and tidy’. It’s like a little mental alarm that I can’t ignore that goes off when people say things like this.

In one way it’s annoying, in another way it can be interesting, since it’s led to a lot of interesting conversations and even more interesting research and learning opportunities.

Still, I have this feeling that conversations would be a whole lot simpler if I didn’t have this bizarre mental alarm constantly going off in the back of my head!

Sending out an SOS

At the time of the conversation above I honestly had no background in whether or not SOS stood for anything in particular.

Like most people, I know it’s the international distress signal, and also like most people I know that in Morse Code it’s represented by the sequence, “…—…”

Beyond these two basic pieces of information, however, I was as uninformed as the next uninformed person of the history and meaning of SOS.

And yet I did have one vital piece of knowledge on my side — there’s a very human tendency to want things to have meanings, even if no meaning originally existed.

I also had a hunch that even if SOS did stand for something, we were being very English-centric for assuming it originally stood for phrase in our own language.

A gazillion dollars on the line!

“I’ll bet you a gazillion dollars that SOS didn’t originally stand for ‘Save Our Souls’,” I said.

“A gazillion dollars?” My coworker replied. “How many zeroes are there in a gazillion?”

“Never mind about the zeroes,” I replied, “what about the bet? A gazillion dollars.”

“All right,” he said, “that’s a bet!” And then he threw back his head and laughed evilly [3].

SOS?! Wikipedia to the rescue!

And away we scamper to Wikipedia.org; which, on the subject of “SOS”, has this to say:

In popular usage, SOS became associated with phrases such as “Save Our Souls,” “Save our Ship” “Save Our Shelby,” “Shoot Our Ship”, “Shoot on Site”, “Sinking Our Ship”, “Son of Satan”, “Survivors On Shore”, and “Save Our Seamen”. It is mostly known by “Save Our Souls”. However, these phrases were a later development, most likely used to help remember the correct letters—something known as a backronym.

The article also explains that SOS was originally a German maritime signal, adopted in 1905, and became the standard used by other nations in 1908 due to its simplicity.

That’ll be a gazillion dollars, thanks

And that’s the story of how I won a gazillion dollars from an evil coworker [4]!

Of course, I shouldn’t gloat too much, since it was just as possible when we made our bet that my evil coworker was right and I was wrong. And yet, I’ve encountered these kinds of folk beliefs before, and they tend to fit a pattern that you can learn to look for when talking to others.

So yes, it was a bit of a gamble; but it was gambling with loaded dice — which, I have to admit, is a nice thing to know if you’re putting your gazillion dollars down on the coffee table!

Much warmth,

Murray By Moonlight

Photo courtesy of Nico Kaiser.

Footnotes:

1.	Not the usual sort of thing we talk about. Usually we’re more interested in discussing airline and railway disasters. [5]
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2.	Although, one person did mention thinking that it meant “Save Our Ship” instead.
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3.	I could be making that bit up, since this is my blog and not his.
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4.	He’s not really all that evil. In fact, he’s actually quite a nice guy, despite owing me a gazillion dollars and refusing to pay up on the grounds that it’s not a real number.
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5.	Just kidding. As with every other workplace in the universe, we usually talk about whatever was on television the night before, and about just how bad the coffee is that day. Seriously.
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